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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] autumn Olive allel - Himalayan blackberry

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  • From: Diane Whitehead <voltaire@islandnet.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] autumn Olive allel - Himalayan blackberry
  • Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 12:07:11 -0700

Tanis described autumn olive fruit as "useful", but Himalayan blackberry fruit is prolific and delicious! Everyone here has a favourite blackberry patch, and drivers have to take extra care on country roads in blackberry season (August to the end of September) because there will be pickers concentrating on getting that bunch just out of reach, and paying a bit less attention to the traffic. Friends from the dry interior visit the coast in blackberry season. We had a Japanese exchange student who picked berries and took home a suitcase full of little jars of jam as gifts for friends and family.

On my own half acre, I cut back all the bird-sown blackberry plants until I could check which ones produced the best fruit. Then I saved three (two early, one late) and pulled out all the others. There are some with big trunks, too big to pull out, that still sprout but I prune them off each year. Like all brambles, blackberries need to be controlled yearly, but what a payoff! They don't need spraying, full sun, artificial watering or fertilizing - just pruning and picking.

That said, the flavour doesn't compare to my favourite - Cascade Berry, a hybrid blackberry, which is a lot earlier than the Himalayan, with a much shorter season.


--
Diane Whitehead Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
maritime zone 8
cool mediterranean climate (dry summer, rainy winter - 68 cm annually)
sandy soil




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